Issues 99/ H D Shourie

'Politicians are more concerned about how they will feature in the evening news, they just don’t care about the common man anymore'

C>orruption does prevail in all aspects of our functioning. It is also
true
that people are not paying as much attention as it deserves. The
politicians, in particular, only look at corruption from the point of
view
of what mud they can throw at each other. Politicians only look at
corruption in the larger sense of “Rs 100 million taken by so and so”
and
“Rs 50 million taken another person”. Politicians will not look at
corruption from the point of view of the common man.

The common man is increasingly concerned about the problems that he
encounters on a day-to-day basis. Anywhere that a common man goes to
get
redress for a problem, he encounters corruption. For instance, if a
common
man has a problem with his electricity bill and goes to the billing
clerk,
the latter will reply "Not today, come tomorrow," then the clerk will
say,
"Come next week." But the moment the common man passes him some money
under
the table, then the problem is resolved in minutes!

Take other cases. Your telephone has a defect which you want repaired,
it won't be done unless you pay. You want a passport, you’ll find touts
outside
the passport office building who can get you a passport within days as
long
as you pay. They’ll even get a visa. All for Rs 2,000, and rather than
waste
10 days or more running after a passport, this is so much simpler.

There is hardly anything you cannot get done if you can pay, and
similarly,
trade is now too accustomed to doing whatever it can in a manner that
is not
correct. Sales tax, they will try to avoid, income tax, almost
everyone is
doing whatever one can to avoid paying it. So in relation to almost
all
sorts of functioning, an individual encounters all sorts of problems
of this
nature.

Thus, this system has brought about a system of resorting to baksheesh
(literally, gift) or underhand payment. This is all very unfortunate.

However, I am talking about the smaller things. There are bigger
issues such
as, for instance, property tax. In Delhi, the property tax levied on
residential houses, or commercial property or industrial premises are
full
of such enormous loopholes and problems in the assessment of the tax
that
the assessee is at the mercy of the assessor.

An assessor will tell the assessee that he is paying a rent of Rs
50,000 per
month, even though the assessee will protest that he is paying only Rs
10,000. The assessor will refuse to accept the claim, point to the
fact that
rents in certain posh areas have shot up. But all this is to make more
money
under the table from the assessee.

On the other hand, there are also assessors, who for underhand
payments
lower the rent paid by the assessee to help the latter gain a tax
benefit.
Now these type of corruption cases are happening to a large extent.

Now, Delhi has about 700,000 properties and the aggregate recovery in
property tax is around Rs 5 billion to Rs 6 billion. I have said that
this
property tax can easily go up to Rs 15 billion to Rs 20 billion. That
is the
size of corruption taking place and the loss suffered by the nation.

Let us look at another aspect, the Rent Control Act. There are today
30
million cases pending in the courts concerning rent and property, and
a
particular case can only progress by giving money to the person who
makes
the application, to the person who receives the application, the
person who
then files the application and so on. There will always be some demand
or
the other.

All this is very unfortunate and needs to be looked at in totality
rather
than piecemeal. Everyone accepts that today corruption exists but no
one has
bothered to go into the details of the corruption that exists, or what
measures need to be taken to root it out.

The measures required are that the laws, rules, regulations and
procedures
need to be changed or altered.

Recently, Common Cause looked into the various laws of our country and
found
there are 1,300 central laws that are completely outdated, yet
continue
to remain on our statute books. And besides these 1,300 central laws,
there
are innumerable state laws that also need to be scrapped or changed.

We have the Indian Evidence Act, which is the main act governing the
evidence and procedure in the courts. It was created in 1874. It was
made a
century ago and yet it goes on. Then there is the Indian Penal
Code Act, which governs the registration of all cases and then filing
them
in court. This code was written in 1860, almost 140 years ago.

Now, the procedures emanating from these two acts actually concern the
common man at the receiving end who is then forced to pay bribes to
overcome
the rather cumbersome procedures.

About 30 to 40 years ago, there was a suggestion to set up a Lok Pal
to look
into all corruption cases and that the Lok Pal institution should also
have
Lok Ayukts at the state level to do the same at the state level.
After all these years, the Lok Pal bill has not yet been passed. The
matter
has been referred to Parliament, and it remains before Parliament.

The Lok Pal is an institution of paramount importance and it hangs in
limbo,
though Lok Ayukts have been started in some states. I am acutely aware
of
the problems being encountered in the functioning of the Lok Ayukts.
The
state governments are just not allowing the Lok Ayukts to function
properly.

The Lok Ayukt says the staff should be appointed by the Lok Ayukt
himself, the state government insists it will provide the
necessary
staff. And the staff provided is the corrupt staff! How can a corrupt
staff
fight against corruption?

I am not talking of corruption that features in the newspaper
headlines. The
newspapers have been covering the corruption charges at the level of
ministers and so on. I am talking of corruption at the level of the
individual. Does any politician ever pay any attention to these?

Politicians are more concerned about how they will feature in the news
that
evening or the next day, they just don’t care about the individual or
the
common man anymore.